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| The 9 young Cannes Teams from Sri Lanka. |
Nine young outstanding marketing communications
professionals from Sri Lanka’s advertising and marketing fraternity have been
selected to represent Sri Lanka at the annual Young Lions Competitions
and the Roger Hatchuel Academy in
Cannes, France in June 2014. The local competition to select the contenders was
organised by Metal Factor the
Sri Lankan representative of the Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity, in
partnership with the International Advertising Association (IAA), the
Association Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Sri Lanka Institute
of Marketing.
The Sri
Lankan Young Lions will compete against teams from around the world at the
Young Lions Competitions in the categories of Film, Print and Design. This
year, a total of 48 young professionals participated in the competition. The
winning duo in the Film category was JWT’s Dinesh Maheswaran and Amanda
Aluvihare. In the Print category,
Nigel V. Nugawela and Dushan Romesh Pieris of Phoenix Ogilvy took the title. Leo
Burnett’s Sithum Walter and Shayani Obeysekara won the Design category.
The jury for these three competitions comprised of Firzan
Mulafer of Publicis Solutions, Varuni Fernando
of Triad, Suminda Gamage of JWT, Bickramjeet Gosh of Phoenix Ogilvy and Rushain
Rodrigo of Grant McCann.
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| Ranil de Silva, of Metal Factor, local representaive for Cannes Lions |
In the Film competition
the contestants were required to create a TV commercial to draw attention to
the prevailing water crisis in Sri Lanka. The participants were requested to
develop a campaign to educate the public about the wastage of water and
encourage them to use it wisely. The
participants of the Print category were provided with a unique challenge from a
fictional not for profit organization ‘The One Project’. The challenge was
based on the recent racial tensions between different communities in Sri Lanka.
Participants had to develop print executions to help educate people and ease
the tension amongst the communities, thereby promoting the message of ‘The One
Project’. For the newly introduced Design category, participants were requested
to design a logo and collateral material including a letterhead, envelope and
visiting card for Metal Factor. The logo then needed to be rationalized using
no more than one hundred words. Metal Factor is a non-profit partnership
created to support the Sri Lankan advertising industry and has been responsible
for many programmes that have benefited the industry.
The
ABC Radio Network supported the nomination of the student to the
Roger Hatchuel Academy as ABC remains dedicated to supporting the growth and
development of young talent in Sri Lanka and is also a committed partner of the
marketing communications industry in the country. With leading media outlets
both in TV and radio, ABC is a mover and shaker in the electronic media
environment. Natasha Fernando of Academy of Design was adjudged the winner
of the local competition from amongst five contestants. A jury comprising Subhash
Pinnapola of TBWA TAL, Chrishantha Jayasinghe of Sarva, Rohan Rajaratnam of
Words and Sheron Jayasundera of Bates selected the winner.
This
is the third consecutive year in which the Young Marketer Competition has been
held. This competition gives young professionals in the marketing fraternity an
opportunity to gain from the world’s most prestigious marketing communications
event. The Young Marketer Competition attracted several teams from various
marketing companies in Sri Lanka. The competition was conducted by the Sri
Lanka Institute of Marketing. This competition was coordinated by Sanjana
Seneviratne of SLIM. Munazza Rafeek and Vidhushi
Rambukwella of Unilever emerged as Sri Lanka’s Young Marketers who will
now travel to the Cannes Lions Festival to compete in the global contest. This
year the competition saw an enhanced interest from
the marketing fraternity. A jury comprising of Gamika De Silva of Etisalat, Leroy
Ebert of Logiwiz Ltd. Sharon Jayasundera of Bates Strategic Alliance Sri
Lanka and Murtaza Tajbhoy of Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. selected these two
Young Marketers of Unilever to represent Sri Lanka at the Young Marketer Competition
in Cannes, where Sri Lanka won the Gold last year. SLIM has also generously
sponsored the competition and is meeting part of the costs for these two Young
Marketers to represent Sri Lanka.
Commenting on the
programme, Kalana Ratnayake, President of SLIM stated, “It
is a great honour to be associated with a programme such as the Cannes Lions which
provides a tremendous opportunity for young marketers to gain exposure, experience
and access to the global industry. This event is an opportunity for our young
talent to become world class. It will enable them to learn from the
communications greats from around the world.”
Commenting
on this year’s competition, Ranil de Silva, Sri Lanka’s representative for the
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity stated, “I am proud to be
standing here today as nine of our very own young talent have been selected to
attend the 61st Cannes Lions Festival this year. It is a great pleasure to see
such enthusiasm from the industry. This year we are proud to have the largest
number of entries competing at the festival as well as the biggest delegation
representing Sri Lanka at Cannes this year.”
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Young Lions Print Competition
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Young Lions TV Competition
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Yong Lions Design Compeition
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Roger Hatchuel Academy
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Young Marketers Competition
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Winner
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Nigel V.
Nugawela and Dushan Romesh Pieris of Phoenix
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Dinesh
Maheswaran and Amanda Aluvihare of JWT
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Sithum
Walter and Shayani Obeyekara of Leo Burnett
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Natasha Fernando of
Academy of Design
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Munazza
Rafeek and Vidhushi Rambukwella of Unilever
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